


Cut Snake

by spotty8ee



Series: For Better Or Worse Au [6]
Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: Abuse, Hurt No Comfort, Injury, Kinda?, Past Abuse, Subconsciously, good parenting?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-02 22:46:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21169118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spotty8ee/pseuds/spotty8ee
Summary: Sheryl tries to teach Gary some life skills, well, life skills to her and it ends up biting her.





	Cut Snake

“What is it?”

Gary’s tone was skeptical, and Sheryl supposed that was fair. After all she had just given him a wadded, brown, paper sac , budging with content. The offering was unsightly and a little ominous looking. It also didn’t likely help that she had stuffed it into his hands as soon as she got home.

Since he was kidnapped, Sheryl just let Gary stay at the camper whenever she went into the city. She was mostly looking for her own leads as Scheer did his, while also getting supplies and hunting down mercenary jobs. She had a few here and there, getting some extra money for food and ammo.

As for what the jobs were for, well, a merc doesn't kill and tell.

That money had also paid for the package in Gary’s hands.

Sheryl slumped into the folding chair by the outside cooking fire, gesturing to him as she started to smoke. “Open it and find out.”

Gary eyed her, but started to rip into the bag. He moved slowly, trying to not jostle whatever was inside, or tempt it to bite him. Sheryl just sighed out a cloud of some as he snailed onward, until her could get a good peek inside.

Gary’s jaw dropped.

“You like?” She asked, cocking her head.

Gary reached in, pulling out the laser blaster inside. “I-is this a gun?”

“Yup.” 

“Your giving me a gun?!”

“Yuuup.”

“A REAL gun?!”

“Yuuuuuuuuup.” Sheryl leaned back in her chair, popping the p syllable when she spoke.

Gary stared at the blue laser gun, back to her, then the gun and back to her again in disbelief.

“What?” Sheryl asked, brow lowering.

“T-this is…” Gary blinked. “Y-you never gave me anything before…”

Sheryl looked off in the distance. “Well, first time for everything.”

“Why did you get me this?” Gary asked, raising the object in question and holding it by the barrel. 

“I got it because if something finds camp while I’m in the city, your buggered.” She snorted, flicking away her finished ciggy. “Which means our things are buggered to.” She stood and walked over, pulling the gun from his hands. “And don’t hold it like that! It will throw off the sights and its bloody hot when you fire it.”

“Oh…” Gary said, staring at the gun intently.

“Now here, look and listen to me, I’m gonna show you some of the parts of your gun.” She held it out so he could see. “Heres the trigger, trigger guard so it doesn't fire if it's knocked, this is the barrel, this is the battery port, and this is the most important part. The safety.” She made a show of turning the safety on and off a number of times. “See this? On. Off. On. Off. When your not using your gun, Safety is on- LET ME REPEAT-” She spoke louder and made Gary look her in the eyes. “When YOUR not using YOUR gun, the  Safety is  **ON.** Do- you- under-stand?” She poked him a few times in the chest for emphasis. 

“Yes.”

“Then say it back to me.”

“When your not using your gun, the safety is on.”

“AGAIN.”

“When your not using your gun, the safety is on.” Gary repeated, eyes wide.

“Show me how.” Sheryl ordered and handed it back. She watched the boy clumsy shift the safety on and off a few times, though it got smoother the more he did it. “Good. Give.”

Once she got the gun back she knelt and lined it up with her eye, closing her other one. “See this tab on the top? It's called the sight. It helps you line up the end of the barrel with your target. Keep yah arm steady and pull the trigger to fire.” She pulled a square battery from the paper bag, showing Gary how to unlatch the back of the gun. “This is how you load it. Each battery has 100 shots.”

She made a show of putting the safety back on, then handed it to him. When he took it, she noted in the back of her mind that his hands were a bit… small for it… 

She shook the thoughts away. “See that tree there? Try shooting it.” She pointed to one in the middle of the swamp nearby. Dead and withered. Gary stepped up, latched the safety off and lined it up with his sights. His tongue peeking out the corner of his mouth.

PLOW! PLOW! PLOW!

The local bird population, or well… the planet’s equivalent to them, flew off in the sky in a flurry of angry noises. However, the tree was untouched, Gary missing it by a few feet. The boy slumped and Sheryl rolled her eyes.

“Well. Its fires…” She grunt. “So it should at least keep anything away until I get back. I mean it won’t kill them, but it will make a decent hole in flesh. I’ll teach you how to clean it later, that's gonna be your responsibility. Keep it clean and it’ll keep you safe.” She said. “As fer ammo, that's your responsibility to. I buy my own, you buy your own.”

“What? I don’t have any money!” Gary said, looking back at her.

“You'll get money for doing work around here.” Sheryl tisked. “Every job you do, you get some money but ONLY if you do it right, and do it well.” She frowned. “And that you can prove you did it.” She pointed at the gun. “That should hold you while you practice. There's two more batteries in the bag.”

Gary stared at her. “So this is to keep me safe?”

“Yup.”

“And… teach me money management?”

“Amongst other things I guess…” Sheryl frowned. “ Frankly I need something to protect our stuff, and I can’t be arsed to do upkeep on a gun I don’t use. I learned this stuff around your age.” She grunted and shrugged as Gary walked over to her. 

She didn’t really know why the idea of Gary being left at camp unarmed bothered her. She knew how to use a gun as a child, but she never owned one. She mostly used knives, or made due with them. Gary should have been able to as well. Yet when she saw the gun for sale she couldn’t stop herself from getting it for him.

Better than nothing.

Sheryl stiffened when Gary threw his arms around her waist, pressing his face into her stomach. “This is great! Thanks mom!”

“Ugh…” Sheryl stared down at him before awkwardly putting a hand on his back. “Y-your welcome?” She patted him.

She wasn’t really hugged often. Hell she had hardly gotten a handshake since John left her. She was tense for the first few seconds, but managed to relax slightly.

Ok, not so bad, but it was still weird…

Hmmm-

PLOW!

**“AH FUCKIN’ HELL!!!** ”

Gary screamed and Sheryl shoved him away, gripping her thigh where the gun had hit. Blood seeped from between her fingers and she doubled over, gritting her teeth. “FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!”

She pulled her hands up to assess the damage. The wound bled but not as much as it could have, likely cauterized slightly. It was the size of a quarter, an inch deep and hurt like a  bitch . She groaned in pain, but when she locked her eyes on her son it turned to a deep growl. Gary had landed on his rump, eyes wide and frightened, gun still in his hands.

“Y-you lil bastard!”

Gary flinched. “N- no! No mom! I’m sorry! I’m sorry- I-I-I didn’t mean to-”

“I SAID PUT THE FUCKIN’ SAFTEY ON!!” She shouted. When she tried to straighten up, she almost lost balance and stumbled a bit.

Gary scrambled to safety the gun before he got to his feet and ran to her side. “I’m sorry! I’m really sorry! Let me help-”

Sheryl snarled and she grabbed him without looking, tightening her hold to a vice grip. “I swear to god, I’m gonna kill you!!”

“M-mom-”

“If I started building walls today, and didn’t stop for forty years, there still wouldn't be enough to fuckin' put you through-!! 

“M-mom!- It hurts-!!”

Sheryl growled and looked at him, she had her hand buried in his hair so tightly her knuckles were white-

She was holding him by the hair…

Sheryl wrenched her hand back, letting go of Gary in the process. She stared at him, still slightly pained, then to her hand, grinding her teeth.

“M-mom-?”

“I can’t-” Sheryl stumbled back into the folding chair, gripping her injury. “I can’t fuckin look at you right now..” Her voice was cold and furious. “Just get the first aid kit from under my bed.”

Gary ran into the camper and came back with it in record time. When he gave it to her Sheryl still couldn’t stand to look at him. Instead she focused on her injury.

She drowned it in rubbing alcohol, biting down on her hand to help numb the pain and dull her noise. Then she pulled out a needle and thread, painstakingly closing the injury with shaking hands. After that she put on gauze and rolled on bandages, strapping it shut.

Once done she pulled her pants back up where she had tugged it partly down and slumped in the chair, grimacing in pain and staring up at the sky as the sun set. She knew Gary was still sitting nearby, she could hear him. She didn’t want to speak to him, see him, or even think about him right now…

So she reached over and forcefully turned on the radio they found in the camper, one with a plug so you could play songs from any device. It was still tuned to Gary’s phone, full of music he and John used to listen to.

Thankfully it wasn’t Loggins again, but a Prince song.

As she shakily started to light another smoke, Gary curled up into a ball, eyes looking to the ground but not really seeing. Over the red tinted twilight of the swamp, the music played on, echoing and slightly eerie for its content.

_ ♪♫-  _ _ He told me several times that he didn't like my kind _

_ 'Cause I was a bit too leisurely - _ _ ♪♫ _

_ ♪♫-  _ _ Seems that I was busy doing something close to nothing _

_ But different than the day before _

_ That's when I saw her, Ooh, I saw her _

_ She walked in through the out door, out door- _ _ ♪♫ _

_ ♪♫- _ _ She wore a raspberry beret!- _ _ ♪♫ _

  
  
  


This Was A MISTAKE.

**Author's Note:**

> Cause they can never be happy right? :)
> 
> Now I'm sure many of you are wondering why Sheryl would get Gary anything, let alone a gun? It kinda has to do with multiple things. The first is wanting to buy your kids objects you wanted as a child. I think even bad parents think about getting their kids stuff they wished they had, as a sort of living through them thing. 
> 
> That also leads into the second reason for Sheryl though. She got the gun because she recalls wanting one yes, but she also remembers NEEDING one and not having it. Causing some very bad memories for her.
> 
> Then she also did it to make herself feel good. Partly because she could stop worrying about Gary being alone, and also, maybe, possibly, deep down, she likes making him happy?
> 
> Likely won't worry about that much anymore!
> 
> Also, for those wondering why she's worried about Gary at all compared to show Sheryl... She doesn't want him dead in the show either? Yes she leaves him and yes she tried to hand him over to Todd but she never actively tried to kill him. She had plenty of opportunity and was shown to overpower him in their fight. She could have killed him easily, like those two prison guards in her intro. Not to mention she likely knew that, even if she handed him off to Todd, Gary would likely get away. 
> 
> Plus he's a kid here. You kinda worry about kids, even if you not a fan of them.
> 
> So there you guys go! Keep on commenting and suggesting and I'll keep writing! Feel free to ask questions on the tumblr! I can respond as Sheryl or myself or as kid Gary I suppose.
> 
> Thanks for reading guys!
> 
> (Also yes, that was an F Is For Family reference.)


End file.
